Science of Magnesium

Dr Carolyn Dean (allopathic medical doctor and naturopathic doctor) talks about the importance of magnesium supplementation. Her book The Magnesium Miracle is available on this website.

MAGNESIUM’s Importance to MITOCHONDRIA for ENERGY and SPORT PERFORMANCE

Why is Magnesium so Important for Health?

Why is Transdermal Absorption Better?

Magnesium is now becoming a big revolution in natural health as industrialised societies suffer more and more under stress and are looking for ways to compensate without relying on drugs or surgery. Transdermal absorption of magnesium salts is the best way to absorb magnesium, as no digestion of tablets is required.

Only a very small amount of oral magnesium tablets and powders gets digested and passes through the gut wall to the inner tissue areas of the body where it is mostly used. The majority of these oral magnesium supplements are expelled by the digestive system and can cause diarrhea. Transdermal absorption is much more efficient and works more quickly with calming effects being felt within minutes of massaging into skin or soaking in a hot magnesium solution footsoak or bath. It is using the same dermal pathways as sweating which releases electrolytes from the skin. The skin is also capable of absorbing electrolytes back in as long as they are in the right form. You can also do it by swimming in the ocean or bathing in mineral rich hot springs.

Massaging with Elektra Magnesium products delivers the magnesium and other elements and nutrients more conveniently to the skin. From the skin (epidermis) the body takes up what it needs via the tiny capillaries of the dermis under the skin and is self-regulating. It does not take up any more than it needs at one time (like tree roots taking up minerals from the soil). Unlike drugs or herbs, you cannot overdose. (Ref: Transdermal Magnesium Study Via Magnesium Cream). It’s just nutrition provided to the largest organ of the body – the skin. Feeding the body by feeding the skin makes a lot of sense… and feels sooooo good!

Elektra Magnesium Oil Spritz formula has a high concentration of Magnesium Chloride Salt Flakes (61%) for use in massage of tight muscles and joints for relaxation which glides on and absorbs much better than straight magnesium oil without leaving that sticky irritating residue, but it doesn’t have the high level of fats of the Magnesium Cream for moisturization and protection. If your skin is dry or thin (having lost skin texture and collagen), you may need some help from Elektra Magnesium Cream to lubricate the skin, which makes it more receptive to the magnesium salts. If you are blessed with an oily Mediterranean skin type you could easily use Elektra Magnesium Oil Spritz Formula straight on the skin because the magnesium salts will work with your natural skin oils to absorb. Our Magnesium Oil Spritz formula is easy to apply and adds a high concentration of magnesium to the spots where you need it most (a bit like WD40 for the body)… ie. loosening up the ‘stuck bits’.

If your skin gets dry and needs some recovery help then Elektra Magnesium Cream is ideal, having a complex blend of natural oils and butters infused with 15% Elektra Magnesium Chloride Salt Flakes. It can be used all over as a body and face moisturizer, as well as an underarm deodorant. It is also preferred by many massage therapists for use in ‘Magnesium Massage’, and recommended for couples to give each other magnesium massages to escape the stresses of the day! All three fragrances have the same magnesium content.

Magnesium Baths and Footsoaks using the flakes provides another dimension of health care-self care: Whilst being able to absorb magnesium from the water, the body is also able to excrete wastes and toxins via the skin. Whatever can be shed transdermally (also via saunas and sweating) lifts the load on the kidney and liver in relation to their detox-cleansing roles.

All three categories of magnesium products can be used together. Just try. If not enough, keep adding more until you feel the results. It’s that simple!

Magnesium in Mineral Drinking Water – How Much is Enough?

The adding of a small pinch of magnesium flakes to one litre filtered water to make mineral drinking water is not so precise – the same way some people will pinch a bit more and some people will pinch a bit less of sodium salt for their meal. All of us are different with differing needs. We only provide a guideline, but other than that you can just experiment with what you like the taste of better. If you would like to raise the pH from 7 to 8 then add to your litre of magnesium water a little extra bicarb soda (the size of one or two apple pips).

If you are trying to work out it if it’s enough to provide an average daily dose of magnesium (ie. 300-400mg) then the answer is no.

The adding of magnesium flakes to make mineral water makes the water more hydrating for cells because of the electrical charge. In a sense it makes the water do its job better by providing better access to tissue cells as a charged electrolyte water. The recommended daily amount to drink for an average adult is 3 litres (3 quarts) or a bit less in winter and more in summer, especially if you perspire a lot. The older we get the more unreliable our thirst mechanism gets in alerting us to dehydration. We can at times be quite dehydrated without necessarily feeling thirsty. You might notice signs and symptoms of dehydration such as aches and pains, stiffness and swelling of limbs, skin looking shrivelled, or dizziness, headaches and hypertension.

However, before you get to that stage why not just get used to drinking ample water? It’s better for your kidneys to cleanse, to refresh your cells and help them eliminate toxins and wastes. Without mineral water your cells start to dry up, which means they won’t be able to conduct bio-electricity very well. This is because magnesium is used in the cell membrane to hold the charge of the phospholipid bilayer. As you lose magnesium, for example under a lot of stress, your cell membranes become compromised and loose, thereby also losing water from the intracellular space. In this case your body’s functions and metabolism would start to become sluggish and slow. Just like a car battery, if the water and minerals in your cells go down, so does the voltage. That’s when pollution in the sewer backs up and cells become acidic and blocked. Inflammation sets in and before you know it, you can become a breeding ground for pathogens – all sorts of toxic bacteria, viruses and fungi like candida that come to eat you for lunch because your pH has dropped to the acidic level they love.

Water means water and not liquid foods like beverages of juice, sodas, coffee or tea etc. In fact coffee removes more water from the body than it donates because it is a diuretic. That’s why good restaurants always offer water with your coffee. If you drink beverages they don’t count towards your daily water intake. They are ‘extra’ because the body has to work to digest them before it gets to the water. Only mineral electrolyte water behaves like a great cleanser and detoxifyer, as well as a river of bio-electrical lifeforce and energy. (Herbal tea infusions with no extras added may be counted though).

It is also advisable to use only ‘food grade’ magnesium chloride for oral use in filtered drinking water.

If you are wanting to get an average-to-high dose of magnesium you need to rely more on transdermal absorption where no digestion is required. If you tried to consume 300-400mg magnesium it is likely to cause loose stool and that magnesium will be lost too quickly from the bowel. However if you absorbed it from your skin it’s a different story. You can use Elektra Magnesium Cream all over the body – which will give you about 300mg elemental magnesium being absorbed to the epidermis and then taken up as required over time. One magnesium footsoak over half an hour can also donate about 300-400mg… And 6-7 sprays of Elektra Magnesium Oil Spritz can provide another 300-400mg. You can use all these methods combined if you have high-end needs like an athlete, a shift worker, or people under high stress or suffering disease states. Through the skin the body only absorbs what it can deal with at any one time, so you can use as much as you like if not sure and just listen for the feedback… ie. feeling more relaxed, calm, muscles letting go of tension etc.

What is The Importance of Food Grade Magnesium Chloride?

The original salt water source is extremely important in determining the quality of magnesium chloride salts harvested. Generally, the cleanest salts on the planet are now from alpine regions thousands of metres above sea level and preferably not near agriculture (chemical run-off), population (sewage and other pollution), or mining operations (mining contaminants). The open ocean is now known for containing too much mercury and we are warned not to consume large fish because of it. Cities around the Dead Sea (once highly acclaimed for its healing minerals), let out raw unprocessed sewage into that body of water. This salt water is then siphoned out and dehydrated to make magnesium chloride salt flakes. Of course it is cleansed first, but can you be sure that the radiation chemicals or oestrogen from the Pill, which are contained in sewage from modern cities these days, has been fully removed?

Land based sources aren’t much better because they usually have to use ‘solution-mining’ whereby they pump water into a hard buried layer of crystalised salts (bischoffite) to dilute and then pump out to tanks. This method can introduce contaminants which then have to be chemically processed out. Even the altitude of the source does not guarantee the highest quality if it’s near any of these pollution sources.

Industrial grade magnesium chlorides are used for many applications including agricultural soil supplement, swimming pool salt, making magnesium metal, de-icing roads and cleaning dust from air of mining operations. For these purposes the industrial grade is fine. However, ‘Food Grade’ is ‘Food Supplement’, so be careful of anything else when consuming it or even using on your skin for prolonged periods of time, as the skin is the largest organ of the body and it is porous. If you are feeding it to your horse or pets make sure the magnesium salts are really food grade. Ask the supplier for a trace mineral analysis with testing down to 10ppb by an independent laboratory, and confirm there is no mercury or lead detected. The total elemental magnesium content should be at least 15% and best at over 16%. The industrial grades tend to be at around 12% elemental.

In addition, don’t be fooled by ‘organic claims’ because when it comes to mineral extractions you could say that crude oil is also ‘organic’ (not grown with pesticides or chemical fertilizers). An inorganic mineral is an inorganic mineral and can have no other inference. A sea mineral salt is a complex of inorganic minerals. There is no regulation in Australia about such claims or the inference that the word ‘organic’ somehow makes it better. It’s a question of ‘buyer-beware’. If a salt has a ‘certified organic’ label it just means that it is naturally dehydrated from salt water. It does not ensure food grade quality.

Elektra Magnesium Chloride salt flakes are sourced from the Tibetan Plateau alpine salt water lakes, naturally dehydrated AND are ‘food grade’ quality. They are a certified ‘food supplement’ and used widely by manufacturers of tofu in Asia. We also get the salts tested in Australia using highly sensitive equipment to 10ppb (not just 10ppm) showing these salts have no mercury and no lead detected – AND the highest level of elemental magnesium in the range of magnesium chloride hexahydrate (16.6%).See here for test results…

Why Magnesium Chloride is More Bioavailable Compared to Other Magnesium Compounds (Oral Tablets and Powders)

Chloride is the most abundant mineral electrolyte in the body. For us to be able to use the metals of magnesium, sodium, calcium, potassium etc they need to be bound to chloride to be ionised and fully absorbed into the water molecule – in a sense swallowed up by the water. In that form (eg. magnesium chloride, sodium chloride) the electrolytes are biologically available. Together, and as a solute in the water, they conduct the bioelectricity of the body.

When you take oral tablets and powders of various magnesium compounds (magnesium joined to another element), they have to be digested in the stomach using hydrochloric acid. The older we get the less stomach acid we make and the more difficult it gets to digest. Also, after the body separates the magnesium from the other element it joins the magnesium to chloride so it can gain access to the cells. All this takes a lot of extra time before you feel the benefit of the magnesium and by the time it can get through the bowel wall several hours later it is a much smaller quantity that is available for cells than if you soaked in magnesium chloride solution (magnesium flakes in water) or applied it to the skin as a magnesium skin care product.

When you take too much magnesium supplement orally the bowel contents become loose and watery, finding their way into the toilet well before you get the benefit of all that magnesium. Via the skin there is no digestion required because the magnesium chloride solution is already in the right form for cellular uptake, and you can feel the benefit of the magnesium much sooner and can absorb magnesium in far greater quantity. Remember, the body takes what it needs and no more – just like the tree roots take up minerals from the soil but no more than the tree needs. It is naturally self-regulating.

Cramps are a Result of Dehydration Caused by a Loss of Minerals – Particularly Magnesium

When magnesium is lost excessively the cell membrane becomes compromised and ‘looser’ because the electrical charge drops. That means the cell wall is not so good anymore at holding things in like potassium or water. And it’s not so good anymore at keeping things out like sodium and calcium (mostly extracellular electrolytes). When the cell loses too much water it develops a scalloped shape like a prune and everything starts to get squeezed – including the vascular system, the muscles and nerves. This feels like pain or cramping and can also manifest as hypertension (high blood pressure). Too much calcium can also enter the intracellular spaces and cause hardening. Remember that magnesium is the best calcium channel blocker – the natural controller of how the body uses calcium to its best advantage.

When the body becomes dehydrated it moves to a water-conserving and rationing status. It releases vasopressin – a hormone which constricts blood vessels so that more water is shunted to the brain, as the brain must take priority with water usage.

To help the body release this pressure and return to normal hydration drink more magnesium water – mixed as per instructions above. For fast relaxation you can also massage into your muscles Elektra Magnesium Cream and spray extra Elektra Magnesium Oil Spritz (formula) on top.

Elektra Magnesium Cream and Why it Works So Well

“Sick of being ‘burnt off’ by straight magnesium oil which leaves a sticky stingy residue? Try Elektra Magnesium Cream moisturizer (AUST L 183096) instead. It is not ‘irritating’, but very beneficial to heal eczema, psoriasis and dermatitis BECAUSE it is ionised magnesium chloride with trace minerals combined with fats (lipids). This is the secret and the science of how it works better….”